BAGHDAD—Iraq said on Tuesday it would shut down the operations of Kurdish rebels based on its soil, hoping to head off a threatened invasion to crush them by Turkish troops massed on the border.
"The PKK is a terrorist organisation and we have taken a decision to shut down their offices and not allow them to operate on Iraqi soil," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said.
"We will also work on limiting their terrorist activities which are threatening Iraq and Turkey," Maliki said after crisis talks in Baghdad with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.
He gave no details on how the rebels could be prevented from launching attacks from their remote mountain bases. Analysts say military action would have to involve U.S. forces in Iraq.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was giving diplomacy a chance, but reminded Iraq that Turkey's parliament had given the go-ahead for a military incursion at any time.
And the publication of photographs said to show eight Turkish soldiers captured by the rebels increased pressure on Turkey's government to take swift action.
"Right now we are in a waiting stance but Iraq should know we can use the mandate for a cross-border operation at any time," Erdogan told a joint news conference in London after talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
He later ratcheted up pressure by telling an investors' conference that Turkey might impose sanctions on exports to Iraq. Turkish exports to Iraq were worth $2.6 billion in 2006.
PKK separatists, operating from northern Iraq, killed a dozen Turkish soldiers in weekend fighting.
The PKK said it also captured eight soldiers, and a news agency with close links to the rebels published what it said were photographs of the captives on Tuesday. Turkey had denied soldiers had been captured but acknowledged eight were missing.
"The pictures show their health condition is pretty good," said the Firat news agency, which is based in western Europe.
With feelings running high in Turkey, and anti-PKK protests in several towns, the broadcasting watchdog banned news reports on the deaths of the 12 soldiers.
'Leave or Disarm'
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said PKK attacks on Turkey would not be tolerated.
"We have given the PKK the option to leave or disarm. We care for every drop of Turkish blood like we care for every drop of Iraqi blood," he said after talks with Babacan.
Washington has so far been reluctant to attack PKK rebels, fearing this could damage ties with Iraqi Kurds and destabilise the Kurdish region, the only area of Iraq to see relative stability and prosperity since Saddam Hussein was toppled.
Turkey estimates 3,000 PKK rebels are based in Iraq. Ankara believes U.S. forces in Iraq have the capability of capturing PKK leaders hiding in the Qandil mountains, shutting down their camps and cutting off supply routes and logistical support.
Turkey's government says it will use all diplomatic options before launching any strike into northern Iraq against the PKK. The easing in rhetoric has helped bring global oil prices down from record highs.
Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships along its border in preparation for a possible attack on rebel bases.
"If expected developments do not take place in the next few days, we will have to take care of our own situation," Erdogan said in Oxford, England, on Monday.
Washington and Baghdad have called on NATO member Turkey to refrain from a military push into Iraq.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Britain's visiting foreign secretary, David Miliband, said they had proposed a meeting in Istanbul next month of officials from the United States, Turkey and Iraq to discuss how to stop PKK attacks.
Iraq's Talabani said on Monday the PKK would announce a ceasefire. Later the guerrilla group said in a statement it was ready for peace if Ankara stopped its military offensive against Kurdish fighters. It made no mention of a ceasefire.
Babacan said any ceasefire offer would be meaningless as the PKK was a terrorist organisation, not a sovereign army.
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